[Shiny]

We used to buy Michelin but seemed they lost the benefit of their higher cost about 10 or 15 years ago.

We have had good luck with General since then.

We put Altimax RT on our Outback a year ago and they have been good so far.

The original tires got annoyingly noisy after a couple years and these Generals are much quieter. Jury is out on life but I had a set of Generals on a Jetta that went 40K and still had life left with no issues when I sold the car.

[ZeGermanHam]

Originally Posted by Shiny

We used to buy Michelin but seemed they lost the benefit of their higher cost about 10 or 15 years ago.

We have had good luck with General since then.

We put Altimax RT on our Outback a year ago and they have been good so far.

The original tires got annoyingly noisy after a couple years and these Generals are much quieter. Jury is out on life but I had a set of Generals on a Jetta that went 40K and still had life left with no issues when I sold the car.

Don't know where you got that idea about Michelin tires losing their edge. As a road course track instructor, I can tell you that it's absolutely not true. Michelin is consistently at the very top of the heap when it comes to tire technology and performance, which is why they are standard equipment on new Porsche GT cars, C8 Corvette, and on and on. You will not find a single person in the automotive sphere who frequently tests tire performance that says differently about Michelin. They are known as the industry gold standard, and are worth the extra cost.

General and Altimax are budget brands. Cooper is ancient history. They're fine for most people (and certainly fine for an '09 Vibe), but if you're going for the best product, it's not going to be offered by any of those brands.

In any regard, it's pretty easy get a better sense of how tires stack up by doing research online. Tire Rack does tire comparison videos, which can be helpful. There are also channels on YouTube devoted to objective tire testing, such as https://www.youtube.com/user/TyreReviews.

[Sirrotica]

FWIW, I've had defective brand new Michelin tires, on a light truck application, they're not perfect by a long shot.

I've had better luck with Continental tires, but that's just my experience. I currently have Continental tires on my wife's 2008 Vibe, so far they're the best in 300,000 miles on her car.

We had Pirelli, Coopers, Hankook, Firestone, etc. etc. on her car, the Continentals are performing the best so far.

I now have Continental tires on all my daily drivers, 1999 GP, 2005 GTO, and 2008 Vibe.

Bringing up tire brands in threads is just about as effective as asking what brand of oil is the best...............

[ZeGermanHam]

Originally Posted by Sirrotica

Bringing up tire brands in threads is just about as effective as asking what brand of oil is the best...............

Agree with you there!

[Shiny]

Originally Posted by ZeGermanHam

Don't know where you got that idea about Michelin tires losing their edge....

I apologize if I wasn't clear, but my statement was simply that we stopped thinking they were worth the extra cost for all-season tires on our family cars, not that Michelin was a bad brand.

I worked with an elastomer formulation chemist a long time ago that convinced me Michelin had a superior product line and we bought nothing else for years. Then we had a bad experience with a set of Michelins and we subsequently had better luck with lower-priced Bridgestones and Continentals.

Given we have a budget car, budget brands are fine for us and we have had good experience with Generals. They cost less than the Continentals that Subaru originally put on our car (which were good tires for us) and to us they ride and handle as well with the bonus of being quieter.

Given our Outback is not a Corvette nor a Porsche, we don't need the "best" performance. I believe you that Michelin is originally on those cars for good reason.

We do tend to look at online hype and ratings before we shop. Here is an example stating Consumer Reports ranked the Altimax higher than the Michelin "equivalent" all-season tire:

https://www.motorbiscuit.com/the-bes...sumer-reports/